Optimizing Danmar M6 2 Post Lift
Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 6:31 pm
I've been thoroughly enjoying having a 2 post lift in my home garage these past few months. It's seriously been awesome. If you've been on the fence about the quick jack or this, the Danmar M6 is what you want. (Not the maxjax)
Out of the box it's a good set up, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would say these the biggest area for improvement is the hydraulic system and the lifting pads.
My first project will address the lifting pads. For a truck, SUV, or most other vehicles, I'm sure this lifting pad works just fine. That's not really the case with the 996, as I've needed to add hockey pucks to make the lift arms clear the bottom of the body. I hate adding spacers between the car and the lift pads since you risk having those spacers slide out. As OCD as I am, it turns into a bit of a circus. After getting the hydraulic lines hooked up, the process goes something like this:
After I got the initial design figured out, I made a second model that was optimized for 3D printing. I hallowed out the part and shortened the base to save materials and printer time.
Here is what the first print looks like. It's difficult to tell, but I've decided to use a sealing washer as a consumable buffer between the lifting pad and the Porsche lift point. This is a nylon reinforced piece of rubber vulcanized to a steel washer. If you think this is too weak, let me put things in perspective. This washer is design for a 1" fastener. 30ftlbs of torque on a 1.00" fastener is going to produce a ~2200lb axial load. I'm not too worried about the washer, and it can be easily replaced for very little.
Here is what the original lift pad looks like:
Here is what the prototype lift pad look like:
And here, you can see we will need a revision X2 for this part.
I've shortened the part by roughly 5/8". I think that should do the trick.
Out of the box it's a good set up, but there is definitely room for improvement. I would say these the biggest area for improvement is the hydraulic system and the lifting pads.
My first project will address the lifting pads. For a truck, SUV, or most other vehicles, I'm sure this lifting pad works just fine. That's not really the case with the 996, as I've needed to add hockey pucks to make the lift arms clear the bottom of the body. I hate adding spacers between the car and the lift pads since you risk having those spacers slide out. As OCD as I am, it turns into a bit of a circus. After getting the hydraulic lines hooked up, the process goes something like this:
- Position arms under car
- Crawl around and place hockey pucks
- Lift arms a few inches
- Crawl around each corner for placement check
- Lower arms
- Crawl around each other to adjust
- lift arms a few inches
- Crawl around each corner for placement check
- Lift car to desired height
After I got the initial design figured out, I made a second model that was optimized for 3D printing. I hallowed out the part and shortened the base to save materials and printer time.
Here is what the first print looks like. It's difficult to tell, but I've decided to use a sealing washer as a consumable buffer between the lifting pad and the Porsche lift point. This is a nylon reinforced piece of rubber vulcanized to a steel washer. If you think this is too weak, let me put things in perspective. This washer is design for a 1" fastener. 30ftlbs of torque on a 1.00" fastener is going to produce a ~2200lb axial load. I'm not too worried about the washer, and it can be easily replaced for very little.
Here is what the original lift pad looks like:
Here is what the prototype lift pad look like:
And here, you can see we will need a revision X2 for this part.
I've shortened the part by roughly 5/8". I think that should do the trick.